They would be joining previously-announced cast members Nicolas Cage, Ciaran Hinds and Violante Placido.

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor will direct the film, scheduled for release in 3D and 2D on February 17, 2012. Shooting is scheduled to start in November in Romania and Turkey.

According to the trade, the film "sees Johnny Blaze, aka Ghost Rider (Cage), hiding out in remote Eastern Europe and struggling to repress his curse. Blaze is recruited by a sect to take on the devil (Ciaran Hinds), who wants to take over his mortal son’s body on the kid’s birthday."

They add that "Elba plays an alcoholic warrior monk tasked with finding Ghost Rider. Whitworth plays a criminal who is recruited by the devil to find the boy and is later turned into a demonic creature."